Prayer and Psalm 14

By: Chris Gaffney

As the year comes to a close, and maybe its not just this year but years that have come to a close, everything might come into question and the question is," is it worth it"?

Depending on what has happened, any number of personal strategies can come into question, as to whether they made the difference that was hoped for. In the search for meaning and fulfillment, reaching a given mountainside or personal goal may not feel like it is enough or was enough and then what is left to search for.

Then everything comes into question, including incorporating a search for God, and seeking the company of those who do.

One of the issues is that God’s abundance goes to everyone and his blessings will also come to those who aren’t seeking him and are busy with any number of other things. So if the blessings are seemingly random, then why make an extra effort to diligent seek God and the company of his saints?

In this psalm verse 2 says, “The Lord looks down from heaven, on the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God."

Here this psalm is saying, the Lord is looking, quite specifically for those who are seeking him. It might be that the relationship with God is more of a passing hello, amidst the strivings for any number of personal milestones that seem rather paramount. Even seeking the accolades containing words like honor, generosity, and so on, could also form into a man made pursuit that bypasses a personal seeking of God that may not be as visibility championed in our society. And then weeks, months and even the year go by just like this.

What this psalm is talking about is the God watch, that just like the words in the Bet Midler song, God is watching you, God is indeed watching you, and that watching is happening right now, right here, in this time and this place.

This verse is saying, does anybody understand, does anyone grasp, and that the watch is on, the watch for the seeking of the individual. God has given lots of good things to everybody, things that can become a distraction if not viewed in proper order, and lost can be the understanding that this watch, is the biggest thing out there, super ceding everything else in importance both in kind and degree, of all else that is going on.

Then the psalm goes on to talk about those who have turned away, starting in verse 3 and continuing to the end of the psalm. “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt, there is no one who does good, not even one.

Will evildoers never learn, those who devour my people as men eat bread, and who do not call upon the Lord, There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous, you evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge, Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion, when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, and Israel be glad."

There is from verse 3, a collective aspect to the turning away, people have banded together in various ways and turned their backs jointly on God.

From verse 4, eating up people like bread means basically they are stepping all over people in various ways, within their evil devices. It is one thing to bring yourself into trouble, but another to step all over other people who are otherwise innocent bystanders while doing this. They do not call upon God, a key aspect to seeking him and understanding him. The call to call had not been heeded. They have exempted themselves from the process, and this can be for any number of reasons. This is something to ponder then, whatever is going on, no matter how great or not so great, it doesn’t exempt someone from the personal calling to call upon God. Someone might have personal characteristics that they don’t even like about themselves, but that doesn’t exempt them from the call either.

Compounding all this is the mistake of stepping on the wrong toes, as according to verse 5, God is in the company of the righteous and the mistake is to step on those toes.

I think this also points out that, indeed, God is in the company of the righteous and it is worth it to specifically seek and spend time therefore in the company of the righteous.

Two major points in this psalm is, seeking God is worth it, because, he is watching for the seeking, and you could visualize this watching in any form that might work for you, maybe the idea of someone by the seashore waiting for boat to come. The second point is clearly God is in the company of the righteous and it is worth it to go out of your way to seek their company, and at least avoid stepping on their toes.

Verse 6 says, that evildoers look to frustrate the plans of the poor,

But the Lord is their refuge.

Within this, the idea of people having plans, especially starting a new year has some validity and importance.

Plans can be frustrated; can go array, and who knows what the right plan always is anyway? But at the same time, good results that you see out there are most often the result of some plan that has worked.

Here the evildoers are going out of bounds and out of there way in such fashion that it is getting in the way of plans for the poor, plans backed by God. God then, is someone who you can discuss plans with according to this verse. God I have this plan, what do you think? I plan on this for the New Year, do you agree. Here, God is cited as the refuge for plans, so that they can be kept in place, and the road blocks removed if necessary by the Lord’s hand. You could discuss plans for the New Year with the Lord, and what you feel would be favoring those plans and what could be impeding those plans.

The final verse is saying, “Oh that the salvation for Israel would come out of Zion, When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad."

What can still finally come out of all this in the end are salvation and restoration and rejoicing. All this representing a coming together with the Lord, which is still possible, and still might happen, for those who are still with him and if those who have turned away, come back.

In the context of the relationship, God is watching, you are seeking. Answers that have already come, have come in this context, which have a between me and you aspect to it. The call is to the one,because here the psalm specifies that not one was found, meaning the call went out to the one. This psalm is alluding to the one on one aspect of God’s watch for the individual who may be seeking him. A Gospel parallel to this is the search of the shepherd for just one and only one lost sheep.

You might think, in the long run what is the difference really, is it really worth it to God to have my prayer in seeking him either for myself or others, given the amount of people out there and things out there, how important is just one person? Here this psalm has an emphasis importance of the one. And it does mention people turning away en mass, pointing out right within the psalm that indeed there are a lot of people out there, yet where is even one who is seeking the presence of God, the presence which is there because it is within the watch that is going on by God.

We know from history one person can make a difference for evil or good.

It might be that God is watching for you and only you, on these particular waters as God operates on many waters as it says in the psalms. But you could visualize, for this stretch of the seas, it is just you that is being awaited.

It is interesting that the falling away mentioned here in this psalm has a collective process. Those who have fallen away have gone off in groups, further symbolic of the lost one on one relationship.

Then the watch which needs to be pondered as such, yet God is watching the world and mankind as a whole but also is looking for the one and watching you in particular. God is on many watches, but one of the watches he is one is on you in particular and you are on God’s watch. That prayer has already been in this context, can be seen retrospectively. God has seen things, communicated things, so personal that it had to be on his watch and in fact, no one else may have seen it, known it. While the draw away might be collective, the draw back to the Lord’s presence, is the call back to the one.

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